Eisele Bass Drum: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This bass drum was made by Henry Eisele in New York, New York, around 1890-1900. It has a dark-stained wood shell with a painted eagle below the vent hole. There are two painted wood hoops with 12 metal tensioning rods, and skin heads. There is a printed label inside the shell that is inscribed:

HENRY EISELE SUCCESSOR TO WILLIAM SEMPF MANUFACTUROR OF BASS AND SNARE DRUMS 209 & 211 GRAND STREET, NEW YORK N.B. Drum heads, sticks, cords and etc. Constantly on hand.

This drum was used by William T. Armstrong (1879-1965), orchestra leader and musician in vaudeville and silent film theaters. Armstrong grew up in South River, New Jersey and began playing drums at the age of 14. He continued his musical career through the mid-1910s, after which, Armstrong began work in banking and finance. This artifact is part of a collection of drums, sound effect instruments, and other percussion instruments used by Armstrong.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1890-1900
• Object Name: drum
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• place made: United States: New York, New York City
• ID Number: 1984.0335.01
• accession number: 1984.0335
• catalog number: 1984.0335.01
• Credit Line: Gift of Pamela A. Carlin and Evelyn A. Mark in memory of William T. Armstrong
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.